Mystic — AFT Connecticut announced Thursday afternoon that the National Labor Relations Board has ordered that an election to form a union for more than 200 Mystic Seaport employees be held on Aug. 17.

The vote will occur from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the G.W. Blunt White building for all full-time, part-time and seasonal employees.

The union said 10 days ago that "well more" than 50 percent of the museum's workers signed their union cards and that the union was presenting them to the NLRB office in Hartford to schedule a vote. Thirty percent needed to sign the cards to force a vote.

The museum has declined to voluntarily recognize the union, which would have eliminated the need for an election.

A majority of workers would now have to vote for a union for it to be established.

Disgruntled employees have charged a union is needed because Seaport officials have not listened to their input about the maritime museum's operation. They said the museum had laid off employees, cut benefits, awarded occasional but small raises, increased insurance premiums and enacted a six-week closure this past winter without asking employees for suggestions or alternatives.

Seaport spokesman Dan McFadden has said that the museum maintains that a union "is a very bad idea for its employees and the institution." He said a union adds cost and a layer between management and workers and that the museum feels it can work things out with its employees. He said a union will not help that happen.

j.wojtas@theday.com